Tuesday, March 27, 2012

WHERE’S YOUR HOME STATION?


Stephen Bly
Copyright©1993,2010

One time I drove through Virginia Dale, located near the Colorado/Wyoming border, about halfway between Ft. Collins and Laramie. I intended to stop and look it over, but a blizzard kicked up quite a fuss. So, I kept driving.

Virginia Dale Home Station
Virginia Dale was a home station on the old stage route, named by the notorious Jack Slade for his wife. When they laid out stagecoach routes across the Old West, they tried to follow some sort of orderly pattern. There were swing stations to change horses every 8 to 10 miles along the road. This lonely outpost may hold one employee who prepped horses to be rested, healthy, fed and ready to hitch when the stage rolled in.

Virginia Dale Church
Every 50 miles or so along the trail you could find a home station. Often western towns got their start this way. The home station, usually built of rough lumber, provided passengers with food, a night’s sleep, and a few items to purchase. It also served as a social center for miles around. If any special event got planned, folks from all over the countryside headed for the home station.

A church can be that home station for you. A place of rest and refreshment as you connect with others to worship and praise your heavenly Father. A place for spiritual renewal for your life's challenges and trials.

Sure, you can ignore and neglect this on-the-trail resource. Even in the Old West some wagons chose to pass by the home stations. But that could kill the horses and burden the weary passengers. Old timers knew better. 

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So, where is your home station right now? Tell us about it.
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