Eastward from Colorado to Missouri
- uniquejt
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Our next RVICS project is in June. We have time to travel the next month and a half on our way to North Dakota. So we left Colorado behind us and drove to Kansas stopping first at the Sugar Hill Golf Course in Goodland for one night. This is a Harvest Host venue and we thought about playing a round of golf but there was a high school junior varsity golf tournement the day we arrived so we passed up the opportunity and made a $30 donation. We encountered more wind driving this leg east and had to stop more often for fuel.
Wednesday, April 22 we drove just west of Hays, Kansas to stay with Tom and Shelley Stafford. They were on our RVICS team at Zephyr Christian Camp back in February and insisted we stay on their property. We enjoyed getting a tour and seeing their ministry "Bethesda Place" which is now operated by their daughter Amanda and son-in-law Jared.
Bethesda Place is currently the home of six talented men who have spent years living, working, playing, and praying together. The residents and staff of Bethesda Place lead a meaningful life together as they grow trees for local landscaping development, plant and tend gardens to nourish themselves and others, and have created an inspirational community in which “two is better than one.” Together they overcome each of their unique challenges.
Tom and Shelley Stafford, the founders were both raised in rural Kansas communities and are graduates of Fort Hays State University. While working at a local group home during college they realized they had a passion to see the lives of individuals with disabilities improved through both a meaningful vocation and a secure family environment. In 1979, while Shelley was working as a Special Education teacher and Tom taught Industrial Arts, they accepted the first resident into their private home. With the ongoing support of their family and friends, they were able to welcome more residents year after year. As Tom says, “It is not as if we said, ‘we hereby dedicate the next thirty years of our life to this mission.’ Rather, it was a matter of day after day saying, ‘OK, let’s try this, let’s try this’…until eventually one day we looked around and said, ‘I guess this is what we are doing with our lives.’”
They entered semi-retirement in 2013 and now live in their home only minutes from Bethesda. They enjoy working at Bethesda seasonally and every Sunday that they are in town. They continue to impart their wisdom to their children, grandchildren, and incoming staff. Theirs has been a blessed life and they often say, “You can never out give God.”
The next day was Thursday, April 23rd and we traveled on to Bloomington East Park in Lawrence, Kansas. The park is located just west of Clinton Lake, between the Rock Creek and Wakarusa River arms of the lake, and offers several different recreational options. While visiting this U.S. Army Corps of Engineers facility we had to carefully monitor the weather. The forecast was issuing tornado and baseball size hail warnings for the evening, so we keep our TV on the local weather and prayed for the best. We did experience some heavy downpours with thunder and lightning but the serious weather missed us altogether.
Friday morning, April 24 was a short 65 mile drive to our next stop at Longview Lake Campground in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Enroute we stopped for lunch with Steve and Karen Puleo, old friends from Santa Rosa who recently moved to Kansas to be closer to their adult children and grandkids. After a delicious Mexican restaurant meal and fellowship we continued on to the campground to meet up with John and Janice Lary for our three day campout.
We had camped there together two years earlier and just picked up right where we left off. We spent the weekend eating meals together, playing cards and sharing stories about our adventures over the past two years. On Saturday afternoon we were joined again by Steve and Karen for lunch and on Sunday we drove into Kansas City to attended the Puleo's new fellowship at New Life City Church.
By Monday morning, April 27 the weather was once again raining so we departed earlier than usual in an attempt to get ahead of deteriorating conditions. Our next stop was 208 miles southeast near Branson. Missouri. We had booked three night at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Indian Point Campground on Table Rock Lake.
This leg of our trip was a mixed bag of gusty winds across Colorado and Kansas with torrential rain, thunder, lightning and the threat of tornadoes and baseball size hail all the way through Missouri.
