PHOTO: Pointing the way

stjoe
Originally uploaded by eandjtrygg.

(By Erik)

This lonely road sign tells travelers that the church meets in St. Jo, Texas.

I took this picture in early 2002, on the way back from a medical missions conference in Dallas.

Just before Christmas in 2001 I participated in a service project with the singles group at Memorial Road.

We ate at Cracker Barrel afterward, and I sat next to a medical school student named Jeanie Jacks. I found out she was from Altus, Okla., and that her parents worked for one of the churches there.

A few days later I was thumbing through the latest issue of the Chronicle and noticed that there was an early January gospel meeting in Altus. It was right after the medical missions conference.

As I drove north on I-35E coming back from Dallas, I debated whether or not to swing westward and stop in Altus on the way home. Going to the gospel meeting might produce a story for the paper — and it definitely would give me something to talk to Jeanie about. I exited the interstate just north of Denton.

I took the backroads and stopped along the way to photograph church signs and buildings. There were lots to choose from.

I kept telling myself that I was really doing all of this for the Chronicle — and we eventually ran some of the photos in a feature on small churches.

I drove all over Altus and couldn't find the civic center where the gospel meeting was to take place. I even stopped at the local Wal-Mart and Altus Air Force Base to ask for directions, but nobody seemed to know that Altus even had a civic center.

Finally, I gave up and went home.

I was the first person in the history of the universe to get lost in Altus, Okla. I never found the gospel meeting, but I had a funny story to tell Jeanie Jacks. I still remember her giggling uncontrollably as I told her about my little adventure. I asked her out a few weeks later.

Now, after two and a half years of marriage, I’ve driven by that civic center in Altus at least a dozen times.

Jeanie and I are planning to attend the 2006 Medical Missions Seminar in Dallas a few days from now.

It’s unlikely that we’ll drive through St. Jo, but as we pass through Denton, I'll be thinking about that little westward turn four years ago that changed my life.

Happy New Year, everybody.