Precious Moments

Afton, Oklahoma           High 84 Low 72

Last night we had some very hard thunder showers. The lightning was right overhead and we had a lot of thunder and lightning. At one point we lost power but it soon came back on.

As of today we have had our RV in every state with the exception of Rhode Island and Hawaii. It would be very hard to take it to Hawaii and we don’t know when, if ever, we will get back to Rhode Island.

As we were driving along I 44 Cindy noticed signs saying the Precious Moments Chapel was ahead and they gave free tours. She has always liked Precious Moments figurines and we decided to stop and see if we could get into the parking lot with our trailer. As it turned out there was plenty of room and we were able to get in and out with no problems.

As you go in, the first thing you come to is the gift shop. We followed the signs to the Chapel and were just in time for a tour. The guide pointed out the various paintings by Samuel Butcher who is the artist and owner of Precious Moments. She told us some of his history and how he came to found Precious Moments. It was all interesting and then she showed us some of his paintings in the Chapel. He painted the whole ceiling while in his fifties. 20 years later he repainted them and changed some colors. There was a sign about how much harder it was when he was 70 than when 50. The whole Chapel has a biblical theme. There are also lots of stained glass windows, which he designed, and his sister fabricated in California and then hauled to Missouri in a U-haul trailer.

The large gift shop.

We were told that this door and some others were carved by Sam Butcher.

This is the ceiling and was the first thing that got finished in the Chapel.

As we were leaving the Chapel we saw what, we later learned, was called Grandpa’s Island. It has what looks like a medieval castle and stone bridge. It was originally a play house for his children, then grandchildren and now great grandchildren.

The whole place is very serene which was one of his requirements when he moved to Carthage, Missouri.

We were glad to have stopped. We spent almost 2 hours touring and sightseeing the complex. I'll put some more pictures on a future post.

We are now at Pelican Landing RV Park. It doesn’t have a lot of amenities but there are a few things to see nearby.

Thanks for visiting.